…I have two MAC’s in the house one is a desktop that belongs to my roomate the other is a laptop in my room. I also have a Playstation2, GameCube, and an Xbox. I currently have cable connection for the computer, live in a 2 bedroom cottage home, which is less than 1,000 sq ft.
I need advice about connecting the entire house for a wireless connection.
What do I need and what would you recommend.
I’d say the easiest way to go would be two USB wireless network devices for the macs, a wireless router to hook up to the cable modem, and whatever wireless appliance to hook up to the PS2, GC, and Xbox. Just be sure that all the ones you buy speak the same language. The two common ones right now is 802.11B and 802.11G, with G being as fast as a normal ethernet connection.
Connecting the game consoles wirelessly would be expensive, because they only have RJ45 Ethernet connectors - you’d need a wireless bridge for each console, with an antenna on one end and an RJ45 connector on the other. I suggest putting the wireless access point (which includes a switch/router) near the video games, and putting wireless network adapters in the computers.
If your cable modem is in the same room as the video games, you can just get a wireless broadband router and connect the games and cable modem to it… otherwise you’ll need to use the desktop computer as a gateway and run your internet connection through it, connecting the computer’s Ethernet port to the cable modem and routing traffic from the other devices in from the wireless card and out through the Ethernet card. (You could also use a separate wireless router for the cable modem and make it work together with the access point.)
Since he’s using Macs (not MACs, but Macs 
), he could go with Apple’s Airport cards and base stations – the current stuff is all 802.11g, and is compatable with all the third-party Wi-Fi gear out there. The older stuff is 802.11b.
Not sure about networking the game consoles, though.
802.11b and 802.11g are completely interoperable. 802.11g, however, is not equivilent to Fast Ethernet. Fast Ethernet runs at 100 Mbps, while 802.11g is rated for either 54 or 24 Mbps. The official spec is 24 Mbps. So-callethd “enhanced” connections use multiple connection channels, but still
My 802.11g card claims “up to 108 Mbps!”, but I’ve never seen a router that claims to go that fast.
Ignore previous post, please…
If the Macs have slots for AirPort cards, then those are the easiest way to add wireless networking capacity to them. They’re guaranteed to be supported by the system software, and cost about as much as equivalent USB or PCI adapters. Every PowerBook manufactured after 1999 (Pismo and up) have AirPort slots, and all iBooks have them.
A clarification: 802.11b and 802.11g are completely interoperable. 802.11g, however, is not fully equivalent to Fast Ethernet. Fast Ethernet runs at 100 Mbps, while 802.11g is rated for either 54 or (sometimes) 24 Mbps. (The official spec is for 20 Mbps and up). The higher speed versions offered by D-Link and others (i.e. 108 Mbps 802.11g) use multiple channels per connection, and require special hardware that tends to be vendor-specific. Also, the bandwidth is shared between all devices, unless you use a wired network and a switch (not hub).
Overall, if some of the equipment is in the same room, using wired networks there and adding wireless hardware to the other equipment using combination router/switch (or hub)/wireless AP gear will probably save a fair amount of money.
For the consoles… Microsoft makes this thing: http://ebgames.com/ebx/product/239054.asp
Not positive how exactly it works, I think you just plug it in to a socket and plug it into the RJ45 slot on the xbox(possibly any RJ45?)… the xbox recognizes it somehow, so it might be system specific.
Regarding speed of wireless networks, last I checked, real-world performance numbers for “54mbps” 802.11a and g networks is in the neighborhood of 20mbps. Don’t believe the hype.
When was the last time you got your car up to the max speed on the speedometer? 
Apologies for highjacking/resurrecting an old thread, but I thought it better to do this than start a fresh one since I have similar questions to the OP.
Here’s the situation: I have an ADSL connection running over standard wires. I would like to change this to a wireless connection with the ability to add in a laptop when I get one. I would also like to connect to the internet on an XBox.
As understand it, I will need a network card for the desktop such as this:
http://www.dabs.com/uk/Search2/Product+Details.htm?quicklinx=3119&searchphrase=wireless%20card
802.11g 54Mbps PCI card
£19.98 inc VAT (£17.01 ex VAT)
and will also need a router. It seems that the easiest way to connect the XBox is over wires, which is fine since the router will be in the same room as the XBox. However, I can’t work out if any of these routers have wired and wireless connections. Could anyone with a bit of knowledge help me out here?
This is a page of routers I have been looking at:
http://www.dabs.com/uk/Search2/results.htm?searchPhrase=wireless%20router
In general, the mods appreciate it if you start your own thread rather than bumbing a thread that’s >3months old.
Most of the routers on that page have both cat-5 ports and wireless. The keywords in the description are “built in 4 port switch”, which implies 4 cat-5 ports + the wan connection (the port you plug the DSL modem into).
-lv